Carmilla's Trials
by Mini Reyes
Summary: (Carmilla: Web Series) After Carmilla saves Laura from the war with the Dean (Ep 34), her Mother brings her back to punish her for the crimes she has committed against the pack. Laura already believes that she is dead, and by the end of the night, she may very well be joining the ranks of deceased. But Carmilla is not dead yet, in fact, she feels more alive than ever.
1. Carmilla's Trial

"Carmilla dear, I didn't know you were the self-sacrificing type," The older woman chastises as she circles the down cast woman before her. The rest of her "family" stand or sit around the room of which Carmilla stands in the centre of, her demise will be in front of them all and her punishment at the mercy of her mother.

Carmilla keeps her head hung low and avoids meeting the eyes of anyone in the room because it's true, she is not the self-sacrificing type but oh how love makes her do foolish things. She tried to tell Laura that she was not the hero type, she tried to warn her to stay out of it because now look where they've ended up. Now she is the hero but being a hero brings only pain and loneliness. Laura and her friends are safe but they believe her to be dead, and for the crime she has committed against her mother she may very well end up that way. Her mother is not going to be so merciful the second time around.

"This is twice now that you have crossed me for the sake of a young and foolish girl, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Nothing mother," Carmilla answers have been short and to the point since her trial began. She fears saying much more than a few because she doesn't want her mother to hear that she still has hope things will work themselves out.

"Not even going to try and deny what you've done?"

"I've done what I've done. There is no denying it."

"Good girl," her mother strokes her hair once and although Carmilla detests the motion she remains still, "But your deed will not go unpunished."

"Of course not Mother. I expect nothing less."

"Apparently you have not learnt your lesson and forgotten your place. I warned you to not let your little pet interfere and what's the next thing that happens? She's waltzing in the door with her little gang of children and staking your fellow brothers and sisters!" Mother's voice rises higher and louder as her anger at the recent memory grows, "They killed twenty six of our own and they got away with merely a scratch!"

Carmilla wants to speak out and say that there were broken bones, fractures, stabbings and lacerations amongst Laura's group, but she is wise enough to keep quiet about the extent of the mortal's injuries. Especially given how such injuries are of little bother to a vampire, and taking into account the causalities they have suffered this night. "I did not lead them here Mother, their friend led them."

"No what you did was far worse than that!" Mother rounded and yelled into Carmilla's face, staring at her with a focused gaze while others spoke up around them.

"You sided with them!"

"You're a traitor!"

"You helped the humans!"

"You killed one of your own!"

Mother put her hand up to silence them again, the point had been made.

"They're not very happy with you Carmilla," The statement is short but she knows what it means, it means that whatever punishment they deliver will pass unquestioned. No one will stop them, no one will come to her aid, she is alone now, truly alone. Love cannot help her here.

"I did my best to keep her away and I told her not to do what she did but the girl doesn't listen. I only wanted to get her and her friends out before-"

"SILENCE!" Mother commands and Carmilla obeys, "I do not care for what you were 'trying' to do, only what you did do. Your little pet is not the only one who doesn't listen. You were warned and I have been more than lenient in the past but just because you are the oldest of my children does not mean you get away with treason!"

The crowd in the room cheer and holler their agreement as their Mother steps away from Carmilla and moves to the corner of the room, waving her hand dismissively. Those remaining step up and surround Carmilla who now looks up as she understands what is about to happen.

"You are no longer one of us. Be gone. You know the price of being on enemy territory. "

Carmilla had thought that banishment would have resonated a lot more with her, she expected to feel a sense of loss at the place that she had been calling home for three hundred years but she finds that oddly, she feels nothing. Well, nothing of the sort. Instead Carmilla is focused, calm and ready to face her brothers and sisters.

Banishment is one thing, but first she has to get out alive. However the task is not so simple and she is very aware that few have ever escaped to live in banishment. What Carmilla doesn't know, is Mother's end game for her.

She does not beg. She does not plead. But she does raise her fists and prepare for the fight of her life as the first punch comes from behind.


	2. Standing the Test of Time

Time is pointless when you have all eternity ahead of you and Carmilla had stopped taking notice of it decades ago. Because of that, Carmilla now had no idea how long this torture has been going on for. She stands in the cell her mother has placed her in and remains upright only because hanging from the chains that hold her arms outwards is more painful.

There's a familiar scent in the air that she is barely able to catch and place anymore, she's become so used to the overwhelming smell of her our blood that she almost doesn't recognise Laura.

Carmilla hangs her head when she smells Laura coming, she doesn't want to see the girl but more importantly she doesn't want the sweet child to see her in such a sorry state.

She hears the gasp but does not react.

"Carmilla?" Her name sounds so beautiful coming from the other girl's lips, "Carmilla are you okay?" She's whispering.

Carmilla's heart sinks, if Laura is here then she has failed in her task. She would have worn her injuries in pride, saying that it was worth the mortal pain to protect the smaller girl but if she is here then her pain will be for not. Her heart sinks, if Laura is really in this place of doom then she is not getting out now. They would have left her alone but she just had to come and try to break her out didn't she?

Foolish girl.

Carmilla should have known better, she should have known that her own disappearance would not deter the girl in her mission, of course it only fuelled it.

Her arms long ago went numb from being stretched out, the weight of the chains around her feet are almost not noticeable anymore she's been there long enough to get used it. However despite her enhanced biology the pain that rings through her joints cannot be pushed entirely out of her mind.

The hinges to her prison squeak open and then Laura is padding towards her, moving her hair to check her face and lifting her head up.

Still Carmilla does not open her eyes, now that Laura is here she has doomed herself and there is no escape, she doesn't want to open her eyes because she doesn't want to see the moment that she realises how Carmilla has failed to protect her. She doesn't want to see the change in Laura when she realises her imminent demise.

"Oh Gods…" Laura whispers when she sees Carmilla's injuries, "What have they done… Carmilla can you hear me? Are you awake?"

With a sigh Carmilla opens her eyes, pulling her head out of Laura's hands and staring at the ground again, embarrassed that Laura should see her having been beaten, "You are extremely foolish," She frowns not in anger but in pain.

"We came to get you out."

"You shouldn't have, I can't protect you now that you're here."

"Oh so that's what you were doing?" Laura replies sarcastically, pulling a key from her pocket.

"Of course," Carmilla replies, "Hey, where did you get that?"

"I told you we're busting you out."

"No Laura you don't understand!" Carmilla hissed.

Laura reached up and took a gentle hold of Carmilla's broken wrist, slipping the key into the lock and freeing her wrist. Carmilla coughs, then chokes and turns her head away from Laura again, spitting out a sizeable blob of blood as her arm falls limply to her side and pins and needles rush down the limb.

"Laura this was to protect you, they were going to leave you alone but now that you've shown up here that changes everything."

Laura wastes no time moving to unlock Carmilla's left arm, "And you believed them when they said that? They took LaFonatine and then they took Perry but then they came for Danny and me. Carmilla there is a war starting above us right now- how could you believe them?!"

Because you were free and this is my punishment for that… foolish foolish girl, always meddling in things you oughtn't.

But Carmilla just shakes her head and tries to reset her dislocated shoulder, letting Laura undo the chains around her ankles.

There is little left of the vampire that remains human, or so she thinks, but there is a stubborn flame of hope that refuses to die down.

"God Carmilla you are amazing."

She frowns again but this time looks at Laura- like she's crazy, but Laura thinks it's a start.

"How are you even conscious right now with these wounds and this many wounds too, I mean… wow," She tries to put her arm around the vampire but she shrugs it off.

"Get off me," Carmilla gruffs, she didn't let herself be beaten down by her brothers to have Laura come and cradle her injuries, this was to save the silly girl and now they all may die, "I'm not human anymore remember? Pain doesn't work the same way it does for you. We have a much higher tolerance," but even as she says those words, her body language screams 'intense pain'

"Carmilla they beat you up!"

"Ha! I'm fine." Carmilla's voice cracks on the first syllable, undermining and believability it might have held, "I just wasn't fast enough to get away… They would have let me go eventually."

"Eventually?! When? Tomorrow? A Hundred years? Eventually just isn't good enough and we need you back."

"You have your roommate back now though," Carmilla's voice cuts out for a moment and then comes back again raspy, "And Xena."

"You mean Danny?"

"Obviously Sugar," Carmilla says.

Laura's moved out of the cell but Carmilla refuses to move, one arm is held closely to her stomach and Laura doesn't know if it's because her wrist is broken or if something else is wrong but either way there is in an anger rising within her. She came to rescue the vampire and now she was giving up?!

"Carmilla. I came all this way and risked my life to get you out now get your ass moving and let's leave!"

"I can't."

"What happened to waltzing in our room? You said it was practically sex. You saved me from giant mushroom spores. You said if you were my TA you'd pass me just because you liked me. You made a deal with your mother to protect me even though it sacrificed my friends. You've done all these things for me and now that I'm doing something for you, you're giving up?!"

Carmilla bows her head again but this time it's not because she's ashamed of what has happened to her, she starts to rock slightly, her vision blurs and goes fuzzy at the edges. Laura's concerned voice fades from her hearing as does the pain in her body. Then Laura is gone and she falls out of consciousness.

Carmilla jolts awake, shaking her head and jingling the chains that bind her wrists. Tears pin prick her eyes and she shuts them tight against the heartbreaking reality she has returned to. Laura is not there. Laura was never there. It was all a nasty trick her past siblings have put her through to break her.

And it worked.


	3. The Test of Endurance

The door squeaks open and Laura jumps to her feet, the already quiet room seemingly dropping into further silence until Laura calls out in astonishment, "Carmilla! You're… you're alive?"

As soon as the words are out of her mouth she wants to smack herself for saying something so… so human- of course Carmilla isn't "alive", she's technically already dead but at least she's not dead-er. But the question is how? They saw her die. They saw it with their own eyes, what happened to her no person, human or supernatural, could come back from that!

Carmilla's swaying slightly and LaFontaine scrutinises the action closely, she's pretty sure it's not intentional.

Carmilla laughs but there is no amusement in the sound, it's dry and self-deprecating. Ha, I've been dead a long time sweet cheeks. "You're safe now," she croaks out as if she's forgotten there was a large scale battle fighting for their lives. She mindlessly moving through the women that stand in the way of her getting to her bed. Once she reaches it she collapses onto it and is out like a light.

Danny, Perry, LaFonatine and Laura all look at each other in confusion and then at the vampire. She's been gone for almost a week and that's all she has to say for herself? LaFonatine pushes Laura forward and she gently shakes Carmilla's shoulder, "Carmilla?" She pokes and pushes a bit harder but instead of her waking up they hear a sickening snap, "Oh god I think I broke something!" Laura cries in horror.

Carmilla's dark clothes hid her injuries and it's not until Danny turns her over and Perry is asking about a first aid kit that they start to poke the vampire and start to discover the expanse of injuries. Perry knows the most first aid but as soon as Laura hoists Carmilla's shirt up past her stomach the mothering natured woman is feeling queasy and looking a little green.

"Per?" LaFonatine questions.

"Mm no I'm fine, but oh dear what have they done to this poor girl?" Perry's hands barely touch Carmilla's skin but she can tell just by looking at the bruises, bites and puncture marks that the broken body in front of her needs someone with far more medical knowledge then her first aid course could ever have covered.

"She didn't deserve this," Danny says quietly from Laura's bed.

"We need to get her to a hospital!" Perry cuts in, pulling Carmilla's shirt down, unable to look at the blood that cakes her skin or the purple, yellow and blue bruises that show through in between, "Oh god, everything's broken, everything's broken," Perry stumbles off the bed and starts towards the door in a flurry of waving arms and panic, "Oh god oh god oh god, her body shouldn't squish like that!"

"Perry! Perry!" LaFonatine takes hold of the frantic woman's arm and directs her out of the dorm room

"Everything?!"´Laura repeats, "That's not possible!"

"I'm sure she's just exaggerating," Danny replies.

"We have to help her!" Laura cries.

"We will," Danny assures her.

"Right, okay," Laura takes a deep breath and wipes away tears that are uncontrollably welling up in her eyes and steps out of the way so that Danny can pick up the vampire.

When they get to the hospital the doctors are astounded by the condition Carmilla is in, never have they seen so many injuries in one person, never have they seen such violence acted out on someone, never in all their years have they seen someone survive so much physical trauma. Carmilla astounds them.

The little gang of women are left in a waiting room with a conflicted Laura and a panicking Perry. Perry is in shock over the extent of the damage done to Carmilla and Laura is caught between her excitement that her vampire is alive, and the horror at what has happened to her.

There are many questions that they need to answer, the most obvious being; what happened to Carmilla? But furthermore there are bigger questions about their safety and the safety of the students at Silas, is the Dean gone? What happens to the 'almighty powerful and hungry light' now? What happens to them now? Do they still have exams now or have they been postponed? What's going to happen to the other vampires now that the Dean is gone?

LaFontaine does her best to comfort Perry as the frantic woman paces up and down the room. Danny holds Laura and a box of tissues and together LaFontaine and Danny share looks of mutual understanding that they too are struggling but must be strong for their counterparts. This war has forced them to get over their dislike for each other and through their time on the battlefield they've bonded over their shared traumatic experience.

The doctors tell them that they're astonished Carmilla is alive but they have a good feeling she'll stay that way through surgery. They try to convince the group to go home but Perry insists she is too stressed to sleep, Laura bursts into tears at the word 'home', LaFontaine says that they won't leave Carmilla behind again and Danny is left to explain that they have been through too much to leave now and their dorm rooms are not big enough for them all. Staying at the hospital together is better for them then going to their separate rooms. They need each other, they need to be together because who else could ever understand what they're going through than those who they fought with. Side by side, back to back, bonds were formed out there that night as together they faced something much larger than them or their existence. They understand what no one else can because they were there. Together.

So they stay.

The seats are terribly uncomfortable after twenty minutes of sitting in them and no one manages to sleep even if they try. Every time a doctor, nurse, or receptionist walks within thirty feet of the group they all turn their heads inm hope that there is good news for them. But the hospital staff keep their eyes down and can't look at the group, they know it will be a very long night and an even longer day. Because that's how long it takes, 34 hours later a doctor finally come towards them, meeting their questioning gaze with a smile to relieve their worry.

"She's okay?!" Laura asks before the woman has made it all the way to them.

"Long story short, yes, she will be okay, she-"

"Oh thank god!" Laura sighs and turns to hug Danny.

The doctor decides that perhaps they don't need to know what happened in surgery right now, they can find out the damage and details after their immediate joy has worn off.

"Can we see her?" LaFontaine asks on everyone's behalf.

The doctor hesitates a moment before relenting, "Alright, I suppose, you all have been here for a very long time. But I must warn you not to touch her, your friend is very fragile right now."

"Will she be in pain?" Perry asks before Laura can open her mouth to ask the same thing.

"No, she won't feel anything so long as we keep giving her medication and pain killers intravenously."

"Okay, which way to her room?" Danny asks.

"This way," The doctor turns and leads the way through the hospitals many corridors and floors with the group almost on top of her the whole way, "This is her room but she won't be awake for a while yet."

"Okay," Laura says dismissively and pushes the door open without another glance at anyone, she has to see Carmilla.

And there she is, still, quiet and laid out on a bed in a hospital gown surrounded by white. Everything about it is so anti-Carmilla; the white in comparison to her favored black, the tidy room against the dorm where clothes are strewn everywhere and cover any available surface… However the stillness does match. So still, quiet and pale as the corpse she is supposed to be.

Laura approaches the bed and takes Carmilla's hand in between hers, studying the woman's fingers as the others file into the room around her. Machines surround the bed including an IV drip and a heart monitor to which Laura finds it interesting to note that there is a heartbeat, a heartbeat that's regular and at a steady 64 beats per minute. It's easier for Laura to focus on their hands because then she doesn't have to see the casts, bandages and hospital sized 'band aids' that cover almost all of her visible body.

Carmilla gasps and her eyes open quickly, with consciousness comes pain and a tear slips down her temple before she can swat it away, "I'm human," she whispers to the room.


	4. Test of Memory

"Carmilla!" Laura's voice screams excitement and it lights a feeling with the bed bound woman, a feeling of hope that she hasn't felt in a long time.

"Laura," Her voice is rough and she clears her throat, "what the hell?" It takes a moment before she sees the room and everyone in it.

"Are you alright?" Carmilla just glares in response but it's rather half hearted, "Right, sorry, you will be okay now though," Laura says, leaning over and brushing Carmilla's fringe away from her eye.

"What the hell happened?"

"Wait," LaFontaine cuts in, "You mean you don't remember anything?"

Carmilla shakes her head and then looks around the room she's in, "God, am I in a hospital?!"

"Well yeah, I mean what did you expect us to do when you came in with so many injuries that it would take three hours to list them all?" Danny responded watching as Carmilla surveyed the room and checked herself.

Perry nods enthusiastically beside LaFontaine and takes their hand, "You poor thing, you were absolutely covered in blood and your injuries were- are, far more extensive then I could ever care for. We had to bring you here."

"Soooo you don't know what happened?" Laura asked, gingerly sitting on the very edge of Carmilla's bed.

"Last thing I remember is watching your video announcing that you were going to walk willingly to your deaths. And then you," She lifts a finger in Danny's direction and finds that she is currently unable to move her arm, "Came crashing in asking what had happened to Laura and we were going to come rescue you."

"And you did, you saved us all. Because of you we won the war against the Dean and everyone was freed."

A deep set frown forms across Carmilla's face and she shakes her head, "Yes you won but you did not defeat my Mother."

"We didn't?!" The whole group choruses.

Carmilla shakes her head slightly and her face scrunches up s little as she tries to remember the details of what happened.

"So what happened then?" LaFontaine asks.

"Wait," Danny cuts in, "Go back to the part where you said you were _human?_ What did you mean by that?"

Carmilla opens her eyes and looks straight at Danny, "I meant exactly what I said Xena, I am human now."

"'Now'?" Perry questions.

"Are you people deaf?!"

Laura is the next to speak, "Carm, how is that even possible?"

"Just as a human can be turned in a vampire, a vampire can be restored to human. It's a long process that few know about and- wait, how long was I out?"

"Out? Only two days, but you've been gone over a week, almost two," Laura answers.

"Since when can vampires be turned human?" Danny asks.

"Uh since always," Carmilla replies sarcastically.

"How does it work?" LaFonatine asks, they're far too excited than they really should be over this 'revelation'.

"I don't know the details, I only know that it's a long process and very painful. Mother never told me anything about it and the only reason I know the ritual exists is because I accidently overheard a conversation mentioning it."

"And breaking a heap of your bones is a part of that?"

Carmilla raises her head as a memory clicks into place, "That was Mother banishing me," It's starting to come back, slowly.

"I had a theory that since the sword was supposed to destroy anyone who uses it, that it killed the vampire in you and left you human," LaFontaine pitched in rather unhelpfully.

"She banished you?!" Laura repeated, registering what LaFontaine said but ignoring it for the time being, she needed to know what affect the banishment had on Carmilla.

"Look there are rules and there are severe consequences when you break them. For going against the group, pack, clan, coven, whatever you want to call them, Mother banished me and they take that very seriously. Essentially you are labelled as a traitor and from the moment your banishment is announced you are an enemy to the pack. If an enemy is spotted in your territory then you have the power to defend it by any means necessary…" Carmilla stopped her explanation there; the group surrounding her bed were smart enough to piece together the rest.

"So, they beat you up cos you helped us?" LaFontaine asked since no one else would say it.

The comment strikes a sore spot with Carmilla as it clicks that everyone is looking at her, waiting to hear the story of how she ended up here in such a condition. Carmilla's not the open type, and she doesn't want to talk to anyone who isn't Laura, "Oh you should see the other guys, I put a world of hurt on them all."

Danny and Perry shifted somewhat awkwardly, they picked up on Carmilla's avoidance of the question. Perry tugged LaFontaine's hand and shooed at Danny to get them to leave, "Well, we'll leave you to catch up and talk."

Laura smiled her thanks at them and then turned her attention back to Carmilla when the door clicked shut, "There's no way you took on all of them."

"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence Cutie."

"Carm, there's a lot of them and only one of you and I can't imagine that anyone there was on your side. What happened?"

Carmilla sunk back into her bed a little more and looked away from Laura as she told her what she wanted to hear, "Mother banished me and I couldn't take them all," she'd looked away because she loathed not being able to hold her own, she hated to admit that she wasn't strong enough to beat them, she hated to be powerless against such odds, and she hated that she had been defeated.

But even more, she hated that now she had lost herself. Carmilla hated that now she was stuck in a fragile, damaged, mortal body with an expiration date. She had been one of the oldest in her clan, one of the strongest, and she'd liked the power she held. Now she just felt small, weak and filled with anger.

Carmilla didn't want to be human again.


End file.
